ut to
meet him.

He clasped it, and welcomed her with joy that he could not have
simulated any more than he could have hidden. There was a tremor in his
voice; a hot sweep of blood flamed in his face like a confession of his
secret soul.

"I never saw you look so tall," said he slowly, measuring her with
adoring eyes.

"Maybe it's the dress," said she, looking herself over with a little
expressive sweep of the hands, as if to put all the blame on that
innocent nun-gray gown, if there was blame to be borne.

She wore a little bunch of mignonette upon her breast, just at the point
where the slashing of her bodice ended, and the gray gave way to a wedge
of virginal white, as if her sempstress had started to lay bare her
heart. The flowers quivered as from some internal agitation, nestling
their pale gold spikes against their lovely bed.

"I don't know that it's the dress," said he, "but you do look taller
than usual, it seems to me."

She laughed, as if she found humor in his solemn repetition of such a
trivial discovery.

"Well, I can't help being tall," she said. "How tall would you have a
lady grow? How tall do you think one ought to be?"

"'As high as my heart,'" said Joe, remembering _Orlando's_ words.

The color deepened in her cheeks; she caught her breath with a little
"Oh!"

She wondered what sprout of blue-blooded and true-blooded nobility in
Shelbyville there was capable of turning a reply like that without
straining for it more than that pale cavalier with his worn clothing
hanging loose upon his bony frame. When she ventured to lift her eyes to
his face, she found him grasping a bar of the cell door with one hand,
as if he would tear it from its frame. His gaze was fixed upon the high
window, he did not turn. She felt that he was struggling with himself
that moment, but whether to drive to speech or to withhold it, she could
not tell.

"I wish I could go out there and run about five miles this morning," he
sighed.

She gave him sigh for sigh, feeling that something was lost. He had not
striven with himself merely to say that. But from there they went on to
talk of his coming trial, and to expose the mutual hope that no further
excuse would be advanced for its continuance. He seemed to be certain
that the trial would see an end of his difficulty, and she trembled to
contemplate any other outcome.

So they stood and talked, and her face was glowing and her eyes were
bright.

"Your cheeks are